CRANE's CAPE TOURS & TRAVEL P.O.BOX 26277 * HOUT BAY * 7872 CAPE TOWN * SOUTH AFRICA TEL: / FAX: (021) 790 0616CELL: 083 65 99 777E-Mail: [email protected]
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CRANE'S CAPE TOURS & TRAVEL P.O.BOX 26277 * HOUT BAY * 7872 CAPE TOWN * SOUTH AFRICA TEL: / FAX: (021) 790 0616CELL: 083 65 99 777E-Mail: [email protected] SOUTH AFRICA'S SOUTH-WESTERN CAPE 1 – 14 OCTOBER 2011 Participants Val Codling George and Susan Battle John and Jan Croft Leader Geoff Crane Report and wildlife lists by Geoff Crane. Photos edged red by Geoff Crane and edged blue by John or Jan Croft, all taken during the holiday. More of Geoff’s photos can be seen via http://www.honeyguide.co.uk/wildlife-holidays/westerncape.html Cover photo – Southern Double-collared Sunbird; Strelitzia 'Nelson Mandela'; Southern Right Whale. As with all Honeyguide holidays, £40 of the price per person was put towards a conservation project in the host country. £250 from the Honeyguide Wildlife Trust Ltd. was matched by Geoff Crane and donated to the SABAP2 project ( http://sabap2.adu.org.za/index.php) . This is updating the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project which ran from 1987-1991 and culminated in the publication in 1997 of two volumes on the distribution and relative abundance of southern African birds. Our contribution will be used to atlas areas that no-one has yet been to. As at November 2011, the amount of all conservation contributions made through Honeyguide since 1991 totals £73,500. 2 South Africa’s South-Western Cape 1 – 14 October 2011 DAY 1. Saturday 1 st October 2011 Orientation tour / Silvermine Nature Reserve / Kommetjie Overcast with a light wind. The flight arrived on time (to the second) and we had cleared the airport by 9am. We took the scenic route to our accommodation on the Cape Peninsula, via Cape Town, Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Chapman’s Peak Drive. From the Cape Town Airport to Maidens Cove overlooking the beach at Camps Bay, we spotted a number of the more obvious urban birds like the Pied Crow, Hadeda Ibis, Hartlaub’s Gull, Feral Pigeon (Rock Dove), Egyptian Goose and Helmeted Guineafowl. We stopped at the top of Chapman’s Peak drive for the view only to find that we were looking down upon a few Southern Right Whales in the bay. After a welcoming cup of tea the group settled in to their rooms and relaxed for an hour. On leaving the lodge we were distracted by an African Marsh Harrier disappearing in to the adjacent reed beds. We found the harrier perched at the edge of some tall reeds. The Levaillant’s Cisticolas were showing well – thanks to the harrier. We also saw a Cape Spurfowl and a Speckled Pigeon here. We drove up to the Silvermine Nature Reserve for our picnic lunch. After lunch we went for a walk looking at the fynbos (the vegetation of the Cape). We saw Malachite Sunbird, Cape Bulbul, Dusky Flycatcher, Karoo Prinia, White-necked Raven, Yellow-billed Kite and Cape Robin-chat as well as a sad looking Cape River Frog, a few well camouflaged Saw-backed Locusts and a couple of bright, hairy, moth caterpillars – Cape Lappet and Tri-coloured Tiger – and an incredible diversity of flowering plants. We took a detour via Kommetjie to see what sea birds we could pick up. Swift, Sandwich and Common Terns, Hartlaub’s and Kelp Gulls, Little Egret, African Black Oystercatcher Cape, Crowned and White- breasted Cormorants to name but a few. Blacksmith Lapwing, Cape Wagtail, Sacred Ibis and Common Fiscal were also seen at Kommetjie. A couple of Spotted Thick-knees under a willow tree were a good way to end the day. We had a traditional dinner at our lodge – a Snoek (fish) starter, Bobotie and sambles, followed by Malva pudding. A few plant highlights: Green Satyr Orchid, Satyrium odorum – a green orchid with a pleasant smell. King Protea, Protea cynaroides – large flowers, our National flower. Erica lutea – large bush by the reservoir, one of many erica species seen. Berzelia lanuginosa – lots of bushes crowned with white balls. Drosera trinervia – small sundew. Salvia africana-lutea – ‘sage’ with brown flowers. Erica plukenetii – red / pink flowers with long anthers sticking out. Pelargonium cucullatum – large bushes with clumps of pink flowers. Lobelia pinifolia – small blue flowers. Polygala bracteolata – pink flowers on a large shrub, especially around the reservoir. DAY 2. Sunday 2 nd October 2011 Penguin colony / Cape Peninsula / Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve Sunny with a strong wind. Cape White-eye and Common Waxbill were seen in the lodge garden before breakfast. After a sumptuous breakfast we headed off to Simon’s Town and the African Penguin colony. There were plenty of African Penguins at the colony, in various stages of moult, but the majority were keeping their heads down to keep out of the wind. We found a Cabbage White butterfly, a Cape Skink sunning itself out of the wind and a Slug-eater Snake. We saw a troop of Chacma Baboons on the side of the road just before the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. At the Cape of Good Hope Reserve we drove down towards Olifantsbos, where we had the first of many Bontebok sightings. We stopped to do some botanising, starting with the orange snake-stem pincushion which has the great scientific name: Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron ssp. 3 hypophyllocarpodendron . At the little bay of Olifantsbos we found several Angulate Tortoises and a big old Leopard Tortoise and many birds. New birds for the day were Cape Canary, Speckled Mousebird, Grey-backed Cisticola, African Pipit, Yellow-rumped Widow, Rock Kestrel and Rock Martin. We found three Gray Rheboks with another small herd of Bontebok, a few Rock Hyrax watching us from the cliff tops and we watched a Green Grooved Dung Beetle rolling a ball of dung and burying it in the sand. The car park was a mass of tourists so we decided to walk from Cape Point across the clifftops to the Cape of Good Hope, where we had great views of the Cape Point. The nesting Cape Cormorants on the cliffs were doing their best to keep out of the wind. From the vantage point of the top of the Cape of Good Hope I watched a Cape Cormorant make several landing attempts at its nest on one of the cliff ledges – with no success! We found Familiar Chat, Cape Bunting, a Cape Girdled Lizard, a Southern Rock Agama and a number of Dassies (Rock Hyrax) enjoying the sun in the lee of the Cape of Good Hope. The only ones to be really enjoying the strong winds were the Cape Gannets offshore. After dinner the wind had dropped and the night sky was clear enough to see the Southern Cross. African Penguins at Boulders Beach in Simon's Town and Bonteboks at the Cape of Good Hope Reserve . A few plant highlights: Pig's ears – Cotyledon orbiculata, medicinal plant with a red edge to the succulent leaf. Sour fig – Carpobrotus edulis , carpets of succulent leaves with yellow flowers. Golden conebush – Leucadendron laureolum , large cones. Pincushion – Leucospermum conocarpodenendron, large bushes covered in yellow flowers. Marsh pagoda – Mimetes hirtus , large stand next to the road, with red flowers. Cape cowslip – Lachenalia aloides , with red and yellow flowers. Men in a boat – Androcymbium eucomoides , small plant with many ‘Russian doll’ leaves. Medusa’s head – Euphorbia caput-medusae , succulent. China flower – Adenandra villosa , white flowers. DAY 3. Monday 3 rd October 2011 Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens and Table Mountain Sunny with no wind! Our before breakfast bird was an African Harrier- hawk feasting on a small bird in the trees of the Afton Grove Lodge (left) . Not a bad way to start the day! Kirstenbosch Gardens were looking magnificent, the show of spectacular spring flowers near the entrance was a mere taster of what was to be found up in the protea section of the gardens. We photographed the Spotted Eagle-owls and their chicks and we then made our way slowly up to 4 the highest point of the cultivated gardens, the protea section. Forest Canary, Cape Batis, Dusky Flycatcher, Southern Double-collared Sunbird, Cape Sugarbird, African Olive Pigeon, Steppe Buzzard and Olive Thrush, plus many others, were seen. Being botanical gardens there were obviously many plants for us to look at. The area of the gardens that will be remembered most was the protea section with many beautiful proteas flowering. We had lunch in the Tea Room restaurant before heading off to Table Mountain, as the sky was clear and there was zero wind, a rare combination in Cape Town! We decided to take the cable car to the top of the mountain and we then spent the next couple of hours walking around the ‘table top’. We saw some Cape Girdled Lizards and we also saw Orange-breasted Sunbird, Familiar Chat, Red-winged Starlings and White-necked Ravens. Some of the delights of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens: Orange-breasted Sunbird, pincushion protea and Spotted Eagle-owl chick. A few plant highlights on Table Mountain: Blister Bush – Peucedanum galbanum . Erica coccinea , a pink erica. Erica abiantina , a bright red erica. Climbers’ friend – Cliffortia ruscitolia. DAY 4. Tuesday 4 th October 2011 Rietvlei Nature Reserve / Darling Hills Road / Bloubergstrand Sunny with a light wind in the afternoon. The African Harrier-hawk was back again this morning, which made us think that perhaps there was a nest about? En route to Rietvlei Nature Reserve we stopped at a wetland area just north of Cape Town. Here we saw many new birds. Brown-throated Martin, Red Bishop, Southern Masked Weaver, Cape Sparrow, White-throated Swallow, White-rumped Swift and Little Grebe. But the highlight for this stop was a couple of White-backed Ducks.